← Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Escaping the Drift - The Weekly Drop: Unlocking the Power of Controversy
00:14:22
Loading summary
Transcript11 lines
- [00:00]
American Express Representative
Traveling to see your fave sports team is cool, but traveling with AMEX Platinum for the big game is even better. Right this way, with access to dedicated card member entrances at select events, you can skip the line and won. And with access to the Centurion Lounge he shoots a three, you can catch the next game on the way home. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more@americanexpress.com with AmEx card Member entrance access not limited to AMEX Platinum Card.
- [00:30]
Bombas Representative
This is a PSA or public sock announcement. Experts have declared Bombas socks as the best way to warm up chilly feet. These pairs are super cushy soft and designed for maximum coziness. Plus, for every pair purchased, another pair will be donated so someone in need of essential clothing can stay warm this winter. Go to bombas.com listen and use code listen for 20% off your first purchase.
- [00:54]
That's bombas.com listen and use Code Listen.
- [00:59]
At It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. @bluenile.com you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from Blue Niles jewelry experts who are on hand 247 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online for a limited time. Get 50 off your purchase of 500 or more with code POD@blue nile.com that's $50 off with code POD@blue Nile.com from.
- [01:30]
John Gafford
The podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be, escaping the drift, this is the Weekly Drop with John Gafford. No matter what platform you're watching or listening to us on, make sure you, like, subscribe and comment. And now the drop. What's up everybody? Time for your Weekly Drop from my podcast. It takes you from where you are to where you want to be. And I got to tell you, man, I'm a little under the weather today. I feel a little. Feel a little rough, feeling a little like, I don't want to do this. But you know what? Like anything great in life, if you don't want to do it, that's when you have to do it. And last week was Thanksgiving, so we didn't do an episode. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to come down to the studio. I'm going to tough it out. I'm going to be there for you guys today, and I want to talk about something. You know, as fast as the news cycle moves, I need you guys to go way back in Time for me, way back in time to last week because things come in and out of the news so fast. I know that. But this was pretty big news last week and I really thought a lot about it and I wanted to see what you guys thought. So if you didn't see it, everybody did because everybody was talking about it. But Jaguar came out with a new branding package last week that was really bizarre. It was like off the wall, like crazy gender bending, you know, actors and models and it had nothing to do with the car. And just a really artsy, super over the top type ad that came out that they did and they got blasted. And every talking head from Charlie Kirk to Fox News, everybody was talking about this, everybody was talking about it. And they were saying how stupid they were, how, you know, the election was, you know, proof that the woke culture was done and people don't want this anymore. And they, you know, why would you do this and this and that? And I saw it instantly for something completely different. And this is what I saw it for. One of my good friends, Dallas McRae, always used to say, man, you ain't gotta worry about how people talk about you. It doesn't matter if you're talking good or talking bad, it's when they stop talking about you, you got a problem. And I looked at that as soon as I saw the Jaguar ad, I thought about that. When's the last time you thought or talked about Jaguar? And the answer is probably you didn't. And if you look at some major companies through the years and over the history of these big companies, sometimes people got to a point where they're like, we need a little bit of buzz. We need, we need some buzz. We got to do something kind of off the wall. So today what I'm going to talk about is why I think Jaguar did that and how important it is and some ways that you can create buzz for whatever your company is and whatever your company is doing and how to do that now. So the very first thing I thought about when I saw the Jaguar ad was new Coke. And for those of you that are younger and youngens, if you will, you won't probably remember this, but back in the early 80s when we had horse drawn carriages and whatnot. No, I'm just kidding. But back in the early 80s, there were Pepsi started doing these taste tests everywhere, these blind taste tests against Coke. And they were heavily advertising these taste tests because people kept poking, kept picking. In a blind taste test they would pick Pepsi, which had a higher sugar content in it than Coke. Did. So Coke comes out and says, for the first time in a hundred years or whatever it was, we're going to reformulate our product and we're launching New Coke. And then they put out this new, completely different tasting formulation of what they had. They discontinued the original stuff, they got rid of it. And everybody started talking about Coke. I mean, it was every. People were like, this is not as good, blah, blah, blah. And it went up. It was like upheaval over New Coke, but everybody was talking about Coke and this before the Internet, before all that stuff. So this was literally just like mouth to mouth, hand to hand. You know, the TV would talk about it, but whatever. It was just such a huge buzz over this product. And then what happened was this. So now you got this, this huge company that's created all this buzz. Maybe not for the right reasons, but, you know, people are buying the product to try it and they're more mainly to say they can just bitch about it. But then you have this giant, like, outcry for like, we miss the old Coke. We miss the old Coke. And then Coca Cola comes, says, you know what, people? We hear you, we listen to you, we understand you. We're going to launch Classic Coke. And this was pretty close behind. It wasn't that far. And then they released Classic Coke. And I can remember as a kid, right, I had some friends down the street, the Adamsons, and there was always like, Coke at their house, right? And I can remember like it was their mom maybe that, like the day that Classic Coke came out, because they kind of. I don't remember if they said it was going to be like a limited edition deal or not, but the day it came out, she went out and bought like 12 cases of like Classic Coke because people thought they were going to have to like hoard it. And it was so funny. But that little exercise, you know, eventually New Coke became a footnote. They got rid of it and then they pushed forward, but it turned the tables on that Pepsi war. It got nobody talking about Pepsi anymore. Everybody was just talking about Coke. And over the long run, it changed their brand because that's how the value of buzz can help whatever it is you're doing. If you look at Apple, like think about Apple. Apple launches all of their products on one day. Like they have the big Apple announcement now. I get it. These days it's not as exciting with Steve Jobs gone, because let's face it, a, you know, it now weighs 10th of a gram less and has a little bit faster processor, hasn't really been anything great from Apple in a hot second. But there are still people that like wait for that countdown and wait for that show because they start to promote it as this big event and then they just drop it all like it's a big drop and it creates a tremendous amount of budge or buzz. And there's a book called Contagious how to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age. And in that it talks about one of the most important things to create buzz is having some exclusivity. And again, if you are a person or a service or a product and you're for everyone, then you're for no one. And you'll hear big companies think that way a lot. If you try to be for everyone, then you're going to be for no one. And so by having an exclusivity part to whatever it is you do. Like for example, when I when I talk about real estate, me personally selling real estate anymore, I specifically tell people when I talk about real estate if I'm going to work with somebody buying or selling a home, I only work with high net worth clients. That's what I say anymore, that that's where I'm at in my career. I only do this and then I really do only do that because it creates some exclusivity to work with me. If you look at Tesla, who Elon Musk has just become a master.
- [08:40]
Bombas Representative
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [09:11]
Blue Nile Representative
Getting engaged can be stressful. Getting the right ring won't be@bluenile.com the jewelers@bluenile.com have sparkled down to a science with beautiful lab grown diamonds worthy of your most brilliant moments. Their lab grown diamonds are independently graded and guaranteed identical to natural diamonds and ready to ship to your door. Get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code pod@bluenile.com that's bluenile.com code pod for $50 off.
- [09:41]
Life Cereal Representative
Life can throw a lot your way. In the morning you might be battling drop off times while your kids are battling imaginary monsters or their shoelaces. But no matter what life Brings Life Cereal puts a smile on everyone's face. With 24 grams of whole grains and unexpected sweetness in every serving, it's sure to please even the pickiest eaters. Help start your mornings with Life cereal.
- [10:06]
John Gafford
I really love my life at creating buzz around things. It doesn't always have to be good. Like, just like the new Coke thing, right? If you think about what Tesla got the most buzz for in the last several years, it was when he tried to smack is when he took that hammer, walked up to the cybertruck and broke the window. There. Wasn't supposed to be breakable, but who do you think was pushing that out harder than anybody else? Tesla was, because it was everywhere and everybody was talking about it and nobody remembers that window break breaking, but you were talking about Tesla. So lean into your imperfections. Lean into those things that make you remarkable. Because, like, there's a book called the Purple Cow by Seth Godin where it talks about businesses excel when they stand on being unique or remarkable. And remarkable doesn't always have to be remarkably good. It can just be remarkably interesting, remarkably funny, remarkably top of mind. You know, my good friend Steve Sims always created a lot of buzz around him and his brand by doing one simple, stupid thing. And that was he would go into back when they had the Sky Mall magazines on the airplanes, and he would go into the Sky Mall magazine and he would find the. If you remember what those were, they had just. It was a collection of goofy stuff, right? And he would go into those magazines and we'd find like the. The weird, like, Bigfoot, you know, statue that you put in your yard that, you know, nobody's ordering. He would rip that statue out. He would write, I saw this and I thought of you. Put it in an envelope and send it to one of his clients. And he said, the value of that was my clients would get it be like, number one, why am. Why am I getting this? Number two, they would be at a dinner party and they would share it because it was remarkably interesting. Hey, this guy Steve Sims sent me this thing and said, hey, you know, it's a Bigfoot statue. Like, why would he have thought of me when he saw this? And now the whole table is talking about Steve Sims. And if you look at what Elon Musk has done, not just with breaking a window along those things, but he did something. And this is where now building a buzz becomes a little bit easier. Because for the last several years, everybody that I know in business that has a big business, we've been a little terrified of Getting canceled, of saying the wrong thing, of doing the wrong thing, of being perceived to be the wrong thing and getting canceled. And it was a real fear with business owners that I know. I know that for years I've taught, you know, don't talk politics, because half of the people you do business with aren't going to agree with you. You know, it's just one of those things where you're so scared of doing this. But again, it goes back to that thing of if you're not for, like, if people don't know what you're for, then you're for no one. You can't be for everybody. No product is for everybody. You've got to be for something. And I think Elon Musk, if you talk about one of the. One of the two, what launched that dude into the stratosphere, in my opinion, in the recent times of being everyone's hero, is when he sat on the stage after he bought Twitter, and that reporter asked him at that press conference, what do you have to say about all the advertisers pulling out or threatening to pull out because of you buying this? And he looked right at the camera and he said, what do I think? I think, go fuck yourself. I think he goes, you're going to blackmail me with money? Like something I literally have more of than anybody on the planet? That's how you're going to blackmail me? Go fuck yourself. And right there, that dude became an absolute hero to so many people that I know, me included, I was like, whoa, this is. He does not care. He literally doesn't care. And that moment of becoming for something and becoming, this is who I am, take it or leave it, got him a tremendous amount of buzz. Just a huge amount of buzz. And you don't necessarily have to be. And I think that's a good lesson that you don't have to be. Create buzz around what you're necessarily good at or what you do. I mean, you look at Red Bull, you know, yeah, they got their stupid little cartoon commercials that are out there, but how does Red Bull create buzz? How do they create buzz around their product? Well, it seems like every time I'm going through the Internet and I'm seeing some absolutely insane thing happening, like a dude jumping off a hot air balloon that's going to land in a biplane and then, you know, drop in on a half pipe and then surf Malibu all in one move, it's all got Red Bull logos all over it. They are sponsoring things that they. That are impossible to do because they're attaching their brand to these crazy feats because they want you to think that every crazy athlete in the world is drinking Red Bull. Because wouldn't you like to be a crazy athlete, too? Even if you don't have the cojones to jump off the side of a hot air balloon, they're attaching themselves to these things to create buzz. So if you're just the average person or your small business owner, whatever you are, I would say the first thing you gotta do is start being you. I think the days of having to worry about getting canceled are kind of behind us right now, thank God. And so don't be afraid to have an opinion. Don't be afraid to share that opinion. Don't be. You can't have fear that half of your people are gonna leave because you have an opinion. Because I would rather have half of my audience really gravitate to who I am and really connect with me and lose half of my audience that doesn't then have 100% of my audience lukewarm and have no real feeling about me because it just doesn't make any sense. So with that being said, man, I hope you guys have a great week. We got some unbelievable guests coming through the studio coming up in the next little bit. It's crazy. Chris Voss will be here next week. Super excited about that. We just had Sean Mikey, who is incredible. His episode will drop on Tuesday. This coming up Tuesday. Just incredible. Guests continue to come through the podcast and a couple of things. I'm starting to do a newsletter. If you don't have time to listen to us all the time, I'm going to start doing a newsletter where I recap the best moments of the week, where I recap everything that's happened on the show, where I recap notes from stuff I'm reading, events that I'm going to, things that I think are cool. So if you want to hit the newsletter, do me a favor, jump on. Click the links in the bio of wherever you're watching this or you're listening to this, or go to thejohngafford.com and yeah, sign up for the mailer list. I'd love to. I'd love to put you on that newsletter. It's. It's going to be. I'm excited about it. It's cool. So have a great rest of the week. We'll see you on Tuesday. What's up, everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.
- [17:08]
Com.
- [17:08]
You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind. Throw up that five star review. Give us a share. Do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.